SALT LAKE CITY — Kevin Franke read letters from his children addressed to the House Business & Labor Committee.
In them, they described their lives as being used for "content" on a popular YouTube channel, until their mother was arrested and sentenced to prison in a horrific case of child abuse.
"I know more about the horrible situation that a lot of kids are in right now more than anyone," Franke said, reading a letter from one of his daughters. "When I was on YouTube, I thought nothing was wrong. I felt quote-unquote happy. But I really wasn’t. When I started getting older, I realized the YouTube channel ruined my childhood. But at least I got some money, right? Oh, right, I actually didn’t because my mom withdrew all that in 2023."
Franke's ex-wife, Ruby Franke was a popular mommy vlogger with the channel "8 Passengers." She and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrand, were eventually arrested after one of Ruby Franke's children escaped Hildebrandt's home in August and knocked on the door of a neighbor in Ivins, asking for food and water. The neighbor noticed duct tape on the child's ankles and wrists and took action, calling the police.
House Bill 322 seeks to block some of the problems that have emerged when children are used for online content and their parents profit off of it. Rep. Doug Owens, D-Millcreek, is proposing that some earnings be set aside in a trust for the children. His bill also gives children a right to have a social media platform take down the content once they turn 18. It would be similar to a copyright takedown notice, Rep. Owens said.
"As kids, you don’t realize what you’re subjected to. Really, you’re selling your life, your privacy, your body and stories to the entire world. And as a child you’re involuntarily giving up all of that," Franke read from another letter from one of his children addressed to the committee.
The bill has been amended somewhat as it apparently faced some push back from social media influencers, who hired a Capitol Hill lobbyist to work on it. Dave Davis, representing the "Utah Creators and Influencers Coalition," said his clients could live with the bill as it stands now.
"Where this bill started? It would have been absolutely devastating to those content creators out there," he told the committee. "This is now in a place where at least content creators can still operationalize it. That they can work with it."
The bill passed out of the committee unanimously. It now goes to the full House of Representatives for a vote.
Kevin Franke said the legislation is "a first step."
"We need to start looking seriously at the emotional and psychological well being of these children, not just the financial," he said.
